By Delia Goncalves, December 23, 2019
A bittersweet celebration for a pastor who helped save his church from gentrification in Southwest DC.
After 27 years, Pastor Michael Bledsoe is retiring from Riverside Baptist Church at 7th and Maine Avenue, Southwest across from the Southwest Wharf.
“As seasons come and go pastors come and go,” said Pastor Bledsoe. “So it’s time to move on.”
Faced with a small bank account and a changing community, he cashed in on a great idea a few years ago. He sold a portion of the church’s property to a developer. In return, the church got a $6.5 million building and then some.
“I can walk away from here secure with the knowledge that they have a wonderful building on a great corner and an endowment to protect them,” he said.
But this is not the first time the church, which dates to the 1850s, has had to reinvent itself. Sixty years ago, urban renewal almost crippled them. The federal government tore down the old building in the 1950s when they opened a decade later. They lost 1,000 members.
Now the church has risen again and is thriving in a changing community thanks to faith.
“Any pastor worth their salt wants to leave their church better than when they found it,” he said. “And that’s simply what I’ve been able to do with the grace of God and a wonderful congregation. So, I’m leaving a church that is a sanctuary for justice and peace and that is very powerful.”
Video: Riverside Baptist Church is renewed
Source: WUSA 9
